Turmoils of war purify the world, for it is the Will of Heaven. Men are beings of this earth, so they follow the same rules. One can’t oppose Heaven’s Will.
For a Hegemon to mature, he must first face adversity. He must prepare for the next step.

[GJ]: To make soldiers mature, why not send them straight into battle?

[GJ]: Lv Bu is powerful, because he has been in many battles.

[GJ]: Our side has many talents, but not enough experience in dealing with adversity.
[GJ]: We’ve only faught small battles, but if disaster strikes…

[GJ]: our army might then suffer a total defeat.
[GJ]: Win a little, lose a little, better to learn from mistakes now, then later when…

SONOFABITCH!

[CR]: You mean you lost at Xuzhou’s on purpose?

[GJ]: I lost to them fair and square, but that doesn’t matter.
[GJ]: Because for Yanzhou’s crisis, our Lord’s goal was…

[GJ]: To lose! To create chaos!

[GJ]: My Master once said this about our Lord…
[GJ]: An able minister in peace times, an anti-hero in war times.

[GJ]: More chaos,
[GJ]: only means it’s destiny’s calling!

[GJ]: Think about it, why would our Lord carelessly use all of his forces, just for a measly Xuzhou?

[GJ]: What was he doing? And what have you all been doing for him?

[GJ]: Yes, he’s worried about blind supporters, those who do not speak up when the Lord is caught in the moment. Where were your brains?

[GJ]: Let the sensible Lords look down on the senseless! Let the competitors underestimate the clumsy!

[GJ]: Let helplessness expose friends and foe! Why would a Hegemon show his vulnerability?

[GJ]: Why did he hit rock bottom from such heights?

[GJ]: It’s for training!
[GJ]: To make his men have their own will and minds!

[GJ]: Lives and dignity are being put to the grindstone that is an undefeatable evil man!

[GJ]: The Xuzhou excursion wasn’t for the territory, but for a training ground!
[GJ]: There is a shallow saying, “put oneself in a deadly peril and one will survive.”

[GJ]: But how to survive? With real experience! The Classic of Rites says,

Leadership must be attested!(quoting from Doctrine of the Mean – “However excellent may have been the regulations of those of former times, they cannot be attested. Not being attested, they cannot command credence, and not being credited, the people would not follow them.”)

[CC]: Henei has talent as well as riches.
[XHD]: A Man, what-in-the-world are you doing?

[CC]: Talents should be used.
[CC]: Wealth should be used.
/* word-play on “talent” and “wealth”, because they sound exactly the same */

[XHD]: Talent? Wealth?
[CC]: Now is the best time to tell friends from foe, and I like to act dumb to observe them.

[XHD]: So… all this time you’ve been observing the Sima clan…

[CC]: I owe Sima Fang a favor, now I just used a little trick and got the Sima clan’s support. Once they fall my way, the other business clans will come too.
[CC]: You know, today’s training will prepare the soldiers for disasters in the future. Also…

[CC]: today is full of surprises. Lv Bu almost died, and I realized something as I was running for my life…

[CC]: Being afraid of death is actually being unafraid of death.
[CC]: But that’s not all I’m happy about. Every one of my concerns… have gone up in smoke.

[CC]: The training is complete.
[CC]: The sun is shining.(“bright sun high shine”)

[GJ]: To take over the world, one must have a firm foundation!

[GJ]: Yanzhou’s loss is a preparation for a much urgent crisis!

[GJ]: That enemy is extremely powerful, in army size, funding, everything!

[GJ]: If we win against Lv Bu at this point, then this crisis will be here immediately. But now, he will lower his guard…

[GJ]: Watch me pit one against a hundred at Guandu!(akin to “tipping the scale” or “even the odds”, but this literal translation carries through to chapter 343, so now I’m changing it back to literal translation)